Caffeine Nights

The very lovely Mr G-Winz played a magnificent set at Marcel’s last night – running through the entire album of The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’. It was a real treat to hear all those great songs again, and with G’s snippets of storytelling throughout the evening, we could all re-live the complex, dark and twisted tale of Tommy, the tormented deaf, dumb and blind pinball playing whizzkid.

Listening to the tunes and hearing G tell the story really reminded me of just what an outstanding piece of musical rock ‘opera’ musical this was, and it’s definitely made me want to get the Ken Russell movie to add to my collection. If you haven’t seen the movie and you’re a Who fan, I would highly recommend it.

I know I will probably get battered by the Who purists out there for saying this, but much as I loved hearing the original Who soundtrack last night, I have to say that I personally preferred the movie version of the soundtrack, where the tracks were performed by the various artists playing the roles in the story. Once you’ve heard Tina Turner belt out her version of ‘Gypsy, The Acid Queen’, the Who’s version pales in comparison.

So thank you again to Mr G-Winz for a fabulous evening, and as ever, here are a few piccies from the event. (I had a great time dressing Lord Andy for the night, so that he could come as our own pinball wizard).

It’s been a while since our last themed extravaganza so this Friday we held another one of our popular events. We decided to call it the Songs of Fire & Ice, in honour of the new season of Game of Thrones. The set was truly the epitome of “Winter is Coming” and we had several diehard fans in their winter woollies.

Sword work really hard to put together what he called his “ice songs”, which was a collection of Icelandic music, ranging from gently haunting mellowness, via the beautifully eccentric Bjork, with a touch of Viking thrash, with even a touch of Nordic mandolin jig!

The starlight sparkles off the snowy wastes as the dark and mysterious stranger appears on the horizon, his black cloak flowing behind him, making him almost become as one with his midnight steed. The figure of the rider and his horse slowly comes out of the veil of mist created by the steam from the distant hot geysers, the horse’s hooves crunching softly in the freshly fallen snow. Faint reflections of the Aurora Borealis glisten eerily on it’s ebony flanks. The rider glances into the foreground, as if expecting someone. He looks around the icy tundra and smiles. His people are coming.

It is Šwørd Štärfällsøn, son of Gustav Štärfäll, of the house of Štärfäll.

He is the Bringer of Music and the Gatherer of the Clans. When he calls, the people come.

Štärfällsøn settles himself on his mount, waits for the clan to come together, raises his hand, and as all eyes look towards him, the music begins to flow…

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The haunting melodies of Icelandic electro band, GusGus:

And as promised, here’s some unexpected Nordic rock, but with fiddles and mandolins!